Michael Joyce

Reporter

Michael's love of radio began with snowstorm school closure announcements during elementary school in his native Minnesota. For over a decade he produced features in Sacramento and then turned to documentary film while obtaining a Master's in Health Journalism. He's just back from the Philippines where he produced both radio and film. "Radio and film inform each other," says Michael. "Good filmmakers hear as astutely as they see, and in radio we're trying to get people to see what they hear."

One of the reasons I love books is I can go to my bookshelf, find an old friend, leaf through the pages, feel them - smell them - and reconnect with a memory - or, in this case, a quote I’ve been trying to recall.

And here it is, from Henry Miller, highlighted and even with an exclamation point:

“We should read to give our souls a chance to luxuriate.”

And that means a good bookstore is like 5-star adventure travel for the soul.

The first time I met Stephanie Stone was swimming. She is not a fast swimmer but a stalwart one. A staunch devotee of open water swimming. Hers is not the kind of personality to be contained by a pool. The lagoons of northern Humboldt County, with the ocean pounding a spit of sand away, Roosevelt elk grazing the brackish shoreline, and the whims of weather calling the shots, all seem to resonate with this midwife who’s grown accustomed to turbulent beauty.

The United States Postal Service has been losing money every year since 2007; in total, nearly $45 billion.

One attempt to remedy the situation has been the consolidation of mail processing centers nationwide. Three slated for relocation are in our area: Redding, Eugene, and Eureka. Residents in Eureka are responding to the likelihood, that by next summer, their mail will be sorted in Medford.

Who Gets The Water?

5:01 pm

Tue July 22, 2014

California’s worsening drought and booming marijuana industry are on a collision course. As the water levels drop and tensions rise, many are asking questions like: Who is to blame? Who should be rationed? And is there a solution? JPR’s Michael Joyce takes a look at just one angle of this crisis: cannabis and cows.

Across the US, there’s an anticipated 35 percent shortage in the number of obstetrician-gynecologists over the next 35 years. The situation will be worse in rural counties, half of which already do not have OB/GYNs. JPR takes a look at three potential solutions being explored in Humboldt County and why they may or may not work.

This week the University of California is celebrating the 100-year anniversary of its agricultural extension program. The UC Cooperative Extension serves all 58 California counties. But the very first county to get on board was Humboldt.

You may be familiar with CSAs , or Community Supported Agriculture. These are the subscription farms that regularly deliver boxes of produce to your door. Now, there’s an entrepreneur in McKinleyville, California who is applying the same business model … to beer.

This weekend, the Wiyot tribe of Humboldt Bay, near Eureka, will hold its World Renewal Ceremony. This will be the first time the tribe has performed the ceremony in 154 years. The last time was in 1860, when white settlers ambushed the tribe and massacred more than a hundred people.

Both natives and non-natives have struggled to heal that painful past, and the Wiyot say the ceremony is important to the tribe’s future.